1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to vehicle front structures in which an energy absorbing member for pedestrian protection is interposed upward between a bumper fascia and a front rigid body disposed behind the bumper fascia.
2. Related Art
A conventional front end disposed in front of an engine compartment is provided with a radiator panel which holds a heat exchanger such as a radiator and a capacitor of an air conditioner. The front of the radiator panel is covered with a front bumper fascia.
The heat exchanger such as the radiator and the capacitor is expensive, and thus a technology is used which prevents damage to front rigid bodies such as the heat exchanger and the radiator panel. In the technology, an energy absorbing space is provided between a heat exchanger and the bumper fascia, and an energy absorbing member is disposed on the front face of a bumper beam which is disposed in the energy absorbing space, so that in the case of a collision at a low speed (light collision) with an object such as a preceding vehicle or a utility pole, an impact energy is absorbed by deformation of the energy absorbing member only.
In such a vehicle having a collision energy absorbing space at the front thereof, the radiator panel is inevitably disposed at a position spaced apart rearward from the front end of the front bumper fascia by a predetermined distance. For example, in the case of a nose cone front bumper fascia which widely covers the front part of a vehicle in the vehicle width and vertical directions, the upper end of the front bumper fascia is difficult to be directly fixed to the radiator panel, and so is fixed thereto via a bracket or the like.
On the other hand, when the front face of a vehicle collides with a leg of a pedestrian, the upper body of the pedestrian is bent over a front hood which covers the top of an engine compartment, and thus the head of the pedestrian falls on the front hood. In order to absorb the impact energy from the head by deformation of the front hood, it is necessary to ensure the space for allowing the deformation stroke of the front hood. In this case, the front end of the front hood downwardly faces the upper frame of the radiator panel. Because the upper frame is a rigid body, the space for the deformation stroke needs to be ensured between the upper frame and the front hood.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2012-148613 discloses a technology for fixing the front hood and the bumper fascia to the upper frame (bulk head) of the radiator panel with the energy absorbing space ensured. Specifically, the hood inner panel (hood frame) provided at the front end of the front hood is extended in the direction of the upper frame of the radiator panel, a hood locking mechanism is provided between the hood inner panel and the upper frame of the radiator panel (hereinafter referred to as the radiator panel upper), and the upper end of the bumper fascia and the radiator panel upper are connected continuously to each other by a plate-like bracket made of synthetic resin.
With the technology disclosed in JP-A No. 2012-148613, when the front face of a vehicle collides with a pedestrian's leg, the collision impact from the front is absorbed by backward bending of the plate-like bracket, and the impact of falling of the head from a front upward position is absorbed by crushing of a box shaped impact absorber which is provided in the plate-like bracket.
By the way, the impact load from the leg is preferably received as a surface load (uniformly distributed load) in order to efficiently absorb the impact energy when a collision with a pedestrian's leg occurs. The technology disclosed in JP-A No. 2012-148613 is designed to absorb the impact energy by crushing of the plate-like bracket, and thus the impact load can be received as a surface load by initially ensuring a large area of the plate-like bracket for receiving the impact load.
However, trying to ensure a large area of the plate-like bracket for receiving the impact load causes part of the area to be overlapped with the radiator panel, whereby the heat exchange performance of the heat exchanger is reduced.